On Friday, former US president Donald Trump praised the sale of Twitter to internet billionaire Elon Musk, but he made no promises to return.
After months of ambiguity and rumor, Musk, the richest man in the world, saw the conclusion of his $44 billion offer to purchase the firm late Thursday.
On his own Truth Social site, Trump said, “I am extremely delighted that Twitter is now in safe hands, and will no longer be ruled by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that sincerely detest our country.”
Trump established a Twitter ban after the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, which the Republican leader is suspected of instigating. Musk has said he might lift the ban.
But in a later interview with Fox News Digital, Trump declined to indicate whether he intended to return from his Twitter exile and remained mum on the subject.
I don’t think Twitter can be successful without me, Trump added as he wished Musk luck and expressed his admiration for him to the cable network.
Most experts predict that the 76-year-old real estate tycoon will succumb to the appeal of reclaiming the enormous online platform where he once had more than 80 million followers.
On Truth Social, which he launched in October of last year, he has just over four million users.
As he did after his own defeat in 2020, a return to Twitter in the days leading up to the November 8 midterm elections might have an impact on the race by giving him a larger audience for his posts denigrating candidates and falsely accusing election fraud in outcomes he doesn’t like.
“Commander in Tweets”
Musk has made an effort to reassure Twitter employees that he does not intend to completely rebuild the company, despite firing four of its top executives right away and talking about transforming it into a genuine “digital town square where a wide range of beliefs can be debated.”
Trump, who tweeted more frequently and without restraint than any other world leader, regularly courted controversy by using his infamous @realDonaldTrump account as a cudgel to promote false information regarding the Covid-19 crisis and the 2020 US election.
He would occasionally publish dozens of tweets every day, frequently when he was caught up in the latest crisis to surround his presidency, giving him the nickname “Commander in Tweets.”
During congressional hearings looking into the 2021 uprising, some of the former president’s more explosive posts were used as evidence.
On January 6, 2021, he tweeted 25 times, with one of his posts appearing to support the unrest.
In January 2021, Twitter deactivated the 12-year-old account due to worries that Trump will use it for “further encouragement of violence.”
The fate of some of Trump’s closest allies’ blocked accounts is being keenly watched by analysts on Trump watch. One such ally is the far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose personal account was suspended for disseminating false information about the Covid-19 outbreak.
